Now showing in Seattle: an explosion of indie theaters

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, June 9, 2004

At Seattle's boutique movie theaters, you can sip champagne, eat a wood-fired pizza or dress in costume to match the film.

Alternatives to the mega-mall multiplexes showing big-name new releases, these small, independent venues are run by film lovers. And Seattle is undergoing a mini-renaissance of little theaters.

Considered art house or repertory cinemas, most have 100 seats or fewer and don't show Hollywood blockbusters. They feature alternative, foreign, locally made, documentary and experimental films, or older movies that are largely known to cinephiles. Some are neighborhood magnets, while others aim to draw viewers from around the area.

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The theaters include the upcoming Central Cinema, which will be a dinner theater, with wood-fired pizzas and pasta. Columbia City Cinema, which kept the Greek columns from its days as a Masonic temple, opened in May. The Northwest Film Forum is about to open two theaters that will show off the work of local filmmakers.

"It looks again like there is a little vacuum in time and there's space for theaters with a little integrity," said Randy Finley, who recalls the days when Seattle was "the strongest theater market anywhere in the U.S."

At its zenith in the '70s, Seattle had 13 independent theaters, Finley said, before big multiplexes run by large corporations became standard moviegoing.

Finley's own trajectory encapsulates that trend. He started the Movie House (now the Grand Illusion) in 1970, which became the first theater in his Seven Gables art-house chain. His theaters eventually were bought by Landmark Theaters, which are owned by Mark Cuban, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks.

Now the little guy and the little theater are making a comeback, bringing films that are more varied, adventurous and edgy.

Independent cinemas often run a movie just once or a few times, not the multiweek engagements you'll find at most theaters. They publish their own schedules, relying less on traditional advertising, and build a following through e-mail lists, membership and word of mouth.

They may be a testament to a strong local appetite for diverse film programming, especially in an age when there's much competition from cable, DVD, satellite and even online movie offerings.

Smaller theaters often bring a more personal touch to screenings, where operators chat with filmgoers and cultivate a cinema culture.

"We're friendly," says Guerren Marter, president of the Grand Illusion, a non-profit cinema run entirely by volunteers. "You can get to know your projectionist and there's a lot more contact between us and the filmgoer."

Little theaters have a way with tradition. The Grand Illusion has shown the holiday favorite "It's a Wonderful Life," all 34 years of its existence. Last month, at screenings of the B-grade slasher "Prom Night," couples got two-for-one admission for wearing prom clothes.

Recently purchased from the Northwest Film Forum by four cinefolk, the 76-seat theater was remodeled with new carpet, linoleum, paint and furniture. Like many of the other small movie houses in town, the Grand Illusion's personality is that of a repertory theater, in which a mix of classic American films rotate with foreign offerings, cult features and more, on an almost daily basis.

Another thing that some small theaters bring with them are creature comforts and ambience.

In the case of the Big Picture, a 100-seat theater in the heart of Belltown beneath El Gaucho steakhouse, that means large, reclining seats. The beverages on hand tend more toward champagne and Grand Marnier than Coke and 7-Up, and the space is a 21-and-older facility.

Big Picture is also unusual in that it doubles as a meeting and events space with a lounge feel, and French and Asian decorations.

Recent offerings include everything from "Touching the Void," a documentary about the human will to survive after a climbing accident, to studio fare like "Laws of Attraction," and the classic cross-dressing comedy "Some Like it Hot."

"We offer what we like to consider intelligent and personalized alternatives to the mass-oriented, multiplex experience," says Mark Stern, who runs Big Picture with his wife, Katie. "We think small is better. Anybody can do big box."

The Sterns consider Big Picture an art house and say they've shown movies that no one else has, such as "Gloomy Sunday," a 1999 German Hungarian film about a love triangle and a haunting song, set during World War II.

After five years, the concept has proved successful enough that the Sterns are opening a second Big Picture at Redmond Town Center this fall with about 150 seats.

Kevin Spitzer is about to fill another niche in local cinema -- the "dinner and a movie" concept. Spitzer is renovating his art studio, originally a brick 1920s car dealership, into the 120-seat Central Cinema, with plans to open in September.

Patrons will dine in booths, sofas and theater seats with tables. Spitzer, a sculptor, says Central Cinema's offerings will include everything from classic films to documentaries, monthly film series, and maybe a few mainstream Hollywood releases. He also plans to show weekend matinees targeted at families and kids.

"I'm not trying to be a destination and drag people from Shoreline or the Eastside out here," he said. "There are a lot of people in this neighborhood that could use something fun to do."

That's also true of Columbia City Cinema, which opened on May 7 in a former Masonic temple that had been unoccupied for four years. The 204-seat theater has Ionic wood columns and a carved wooden frieze. Patrons get an old-fashioned tear ticket from a big roll and the munchies don't cost an arm and a leg.

"There's a uniqueness about coming to a cinema like this," said Paul Doyle, the owner. "This is not a cookie-cutter cinema."

Though Doyle used to run the more artsy Grand Illusion, he's now showing the best first-run films available. Currently, that's "Shrek 2," to be replaced by "The Stepford Wives" starting tomorrow.

You won't see first-run fare at the Northwest Film Forum, which is opening two theaters in a new 8,000-square-foot space on Capitol Hill sometime this summer. Their current space, The Little Theater, will close as a movie house.

Northwest Film Forum largely screens locally produced films, including the 100 or so made each year through its in-house studio, Wiggly World. They also show new documentaries and foreign art-house fare.

"This facility will be the flagship independent cinema in the state, if not the entire Northwest," says Michael Seiwerath, executive director.

Part of the reason new theaters are blossoming is that so many more films are being made today. In an age of cheaper, more accessible digital equipment, practically anyone can become a filmmaker.

"I think there's a tremendous amount of new work being generated," says Seiwerath, who guesses that the volume of new films has doubled or tripled in the past five years.

And that means theaters can bring viewers films they may never have heard of, such as "Nothing So Strange," a mockumentary about the obviously fictitious assassination of Bill Gates. Consolidated Works, a multidisciplinary arts space that features film, live theater, art, lectures and music, was the only venue to show the film in Seattle, says Andy Spletzer, ConWorks former film curator and a movie columnist for The Stranger.

ConWorks' current, interim curator, Adam Hart, says he finds films by reading film publications, tracking alternative festivals, such as Slamdance and South by Southwest, and following the film scene in San Francisco and New York.

There are many other places like ConWorks that don't show movies daily, but make it part of their programming or mission. They include 911 Media Arts, the Jewel Box Theater and Sunset Tavern.

Some of the films played at Seattle's smaller movie houses may overlap sometimes, but the people who run them don't seem concerned about competition.

"They all make it a better city to live in," said Seiwerath. "I think the city's really coming into its own as a film exhibition center, and it's becoming less dependent on big corporations."